Most Popular
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Controversy rekindled over when to name criminals, suspects
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Seoul transit pass for travelers to be available starting July
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Hybe-Ador CEO conflict gets messier
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Battery makers ramp up efforts to diversify graphite supply chain
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Prosecutors to summon pastor who allegedly gave Dior bag to first lady
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‘Monk’ DJ spreading Buddhism goes global
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[LLG] Unseen inheritance: Trauma of transnational adoption 'trickles down' to adoptees' children
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[KH Explains] Hyundai Motor’s plan for new landmark keeps hitting bumps
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Court's ruling set to shape path of medical school expansion
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Seoul vows action over Naver's Line, Yahoo dispute
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Concerns grow over heightened terror threats by Pyongyang against South Koreans
In the wake of the recent defection of a high-ranking North Korean diplomat to South Korea, concerns have grown that Pyongyang may be considering terrorist attacks on South Korean nationals in China and East Asian countries.Last week, Seoul said Thae Yong-ho, a minister at the North Korean embassy in London, defected to the South with his family in the latest development that shows even elite officials are becoming disillusioned with the world's most closed and repressive country. Thae is believ
Aug. 21, 2016
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North Korea calls defected diplomat 'criminal'
North Korea said Saturday that a Britain-based senior diplomat who recently defected to South Korea is a "criminal."Earlier this week, the South announced that Thae Yong-ho, who served as a minister at North Korea's embassy in London, and his family had arrived in South Korea.In its first official response to the high-profile defection, the North accused the South of launching an "anti-DPRK (North Korea) smear campaign and confrontation.""The Park Geun-hye group of traitors in South Korea carrie
Aug. 21, 2016
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Naturally occurring quake detected in North Korea
A magnitude 3 earthquake was detected in eastern North Korea on Saturday, but it appears to be a naturally occurring one, South Korea's weather agency said.The earthquake took place at 12:18 p.m. in areas of North Korea's Gangwon province near the inter-Korean border, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA)."The quake seems to be a naturally occuring earthquake," the agency said.On Thursday, a 2.6-magnitude quake was detected in North Korea's southwestern province of Hwanghae,
Aug. 20, 2016
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N.K., China start repair work on bridge linking their border
North Korea and China on Saturday kicked off a 40-day repair work on a railroad bridge that links the two countries' border cities, a source familiar with the matter said.The source said that the countries started maintenance work on the railway system on the bridge linking North Korea's border city of Sinuiju to China's city of Dandong over the Yalu River."During the repair period, not only trains but also vehicles will not be allowed to cross the bridge," the source said.The bridge, built in 1
Aug. 20, 2016
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N. Korea denounces S. Korea's front-line fire exercise as military provocation
North Korea on Friday slammed South Korean military's largest-ever live-fire exercise conducted to mark last year's inter-Korean artillery clash, denouncing it as a rash provocation. South Korea's military on Thursday carried out the drill along the tense inter-Korean border, involving 49 front-line artillery battalions. It was the military's biggest-ever artillery exercise in size, with about 300 guns being fired in a show of force.It took place two days before South Korea marks the anniversary
Aug. 19, 2016
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NK official running state coffer in Europe disappears: media report
A North Korean official managing money for North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Europe has disappeared, raising speculation that he might have defected with a large amount of state funds, a local media report said Friday.Citing anonymous sources, Dong-A Ilbo, a major daily newspaper here, reported that the official in charge of money management for the so-called No. 39 office of the Workers' Party vanished in June.The office is known for running money for Kim's regime.The North Korean official is
Aug. 19, 2016
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NK diplomat directly flew into S. Korea for defection: source
A Britain-based senior North Korean diplomat directly flew to South Korea after expressing his wish to defect to the Seoul government, a source said Friday.Thae Yong-ho, who served as a minister at North Korea's embassy in London, and his family arrived in South Korea late last month without going through a third country, according to the source familiar with the matter.The 55-year-old Thae, known as the No. 2 man at the North's embassy, has become one of the highest-level North Korean diplomats
Aug. 19, 2016
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US Navy secretary to meet S. Korea's defense chief over N. Korean issues
The secretary of the U.S. Navy will meet with South Korea's defense minister on Friday to discuss measures to better counter threats from North Korea, the military said. US Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus is set to meet Han Min-koo in Seoul, the Ministry of National Defense said in a statement. "The US naval official and South Korea's top defense policymaker will discuss measures to strengthen the bilateral alliance against growing (nuclear and missile) threats from the North and to cooperate on
Aug. 19, 2016
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NK diplomat's defection could lead to even more defections: CSIS
The defection of North Korea's No. 2 diplomat in London will likely prompt the regime in Pyongyang to take oppressive measures to prevent similar cases, which could in return encourage even more defections, a US think tank said Thursday.Thae Yong-ho, 55, minister at the North's mission in London, recently arrived in South Korea with his family, Seoul's Ministry of Unification announced earlier this week without unveiling further details. He is one of the highest-ranking North Korean diplomats to
Aug. 19, 2016
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NK diplomat’s defection blow to Kim regime
A high-ranking North Korean diplomat’s recent defection to the South is expected to have a substantial impact on the Kim Jong-un leadership, but local experts said it may be a stretch to see it as an omen of Pyongyang’s downfall.Seoul’s Unification Ministry on Wednesday announced Thae Yong-ho, a minister based in London, has come to South Korea with his family and is under protection. Thae’s defection is the latest in the recent string of defections by the North’s elite group. The North Korean E
Aug. 18, 2016
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S. Korea in talks with allies to counteract N. Korea's plutonium production
South Korea is in discussions with its allies on how to counteract North Korea's claimed resumption of weapons-grade plutonium production, a government official said Thursday.On Wednesday, Japan's Kyodo News reported North Korea had restarted its plutonium production for nuclear weapons use, citing its interview with Pyongyang's Atomic Energy Institute. The North Korean institute said producing highly enriched uranium is necessary for nuclear weapons and power, highlighting that it has no plans
Aug. 18, 2016
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Report says N. Korean defectors vulnerable to civil suits in South
A majority of North Korean defectors are embroiled in money-related civil suits in South Korea as they are not accustomed to money transactions in the capitalist society, a report showed Thursday.The Korea Hana Foundation, the government's agency that supports North Korean settlement in the South, provided free legal services to former North Koreans involved in 142 cases in 2014, according to the report released by the state-run Korea Development Institute.Out of the total, 81 cases were civil s
Aug. 18, 2016
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N.K. diplomat defector, wife from highly privileged families: source
A top North Korean diplomat and his wife who defected to South Korea come from privileged backgrounds as they are descendants of prominent guerrillas who fought against Japanese colonialists in the 1930s, a source familiar with the matter said Thursday.Thae Yong-ho, who served as minister at North Korea's embassy in London, is believed to be the son of late four-star general Thae Pyong-ryol who actively took part in the anti-Japanese campaign, led by North Korea's late founder Kim Il-sung, accor
Aug. 18, 2016
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N. Korea sets up 3 new antiaircraft artillery bases in Pyongyang: report
North Korea has set up three new antiaircraft artillery bases in the outskirts of Pyongyang as part of its efforts to defend the North Korean capital and its military facilities, the U.S.-based Radio Free Asia said Thursday.Citing Curtis Melvin, a researcher at the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University, the RFA said a satellite imagery analysis of the antiaircraft artillery bases suggests they are situated in eastern Pyongyang and an existing antiaircraft artillery base is reinforced
Aug. 18, 2016
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U.S. calls for protection of N.K. refugees, asylum seekers after high-profile defection
The United States on Wednesday called for protecting North Korean refugees and asylum seekers around the world after the No. 2 diplomat at the North's Embassy in Britain was confirmed to have defected to South Korea.Thae Yong-ho, 55, minister at the North's mission in London, recently arrived in South Korea with his family, Seoul's Ministry of Unification announced earlier Wednesday without unveiling further details. He is one of the highest-ranking North Korean diplomats to defect to Seoul."We
Aug. 18, 2016
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State Deparment: N. Korea's nuclear reprocessing 'clear violation' of UN resolutions
The United States said Wednesday North Korea's resumption of nuclear fuel reprocessing for plutonium production is a "clear violation" of UN Security Council resolutions.Pyongyang's Atomic Energy Institute said in an interview with Japan's Kyodo News published earlier Wednesday that the communist nation has "reprocessed spent nuclear fuel rods removed from a graphite-moderated reactor." It was referring to the five-megawatt reactor at the North's Yongbyon nuclear complex.It marked the first time
Aug. 18, 2016
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N. Korea threatens attacks on US military bases in Pacific over bombers deployment
North Korea denounced the United States' forward deployment of additional nuclear bombers to Guam on Wednesday, threatening that American military bases in the Pacific region will face "ruin" in the event of reckless acts."The introduction of the nuclear strategic bombers to Guam by the US... proves that the US plan for a preemptive nuclear strike at the DPRK has entered a reckless phase of implementation," the North's state-run Korean Central News Agency reported in a statement issued by the fo
Aug. 18, 2016
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N.Korea says it has resumed plutonium production: Kyodo
North Korea says it has resumed plutonium production from spent fuel rods and has no plans to stop nuclear tests as long as the United States still "threatens" Pyongyang, Kyodo News reported Wednesday. The North's Atomic Energy Institute, which has jurisdiction over the country's main atomic complex Yongbyon, told Kyodo it had been producing highly enriched uranium for nuclear arms and power "as scheduled". "We have reprocessed spent nuclear fuel rods removed from a graphite-moderated reacto
Aug. 17, 2016
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North Korean diplomat defects to South with family
North Korea’s second-highest ranking diplomat based in London has defected to South Korea, the Unification Ministry said Wednesday, marking one of the highest-profile defections in recent years from the communist state. “Thae Yong-ho, a minister based in Britain, has recently entered South Korea with his wife and child. They are currently under protection of the government, and the related organizations are carrying out necessary procedures,” said ministry spokesman Jeong Joon-hee during a media
Aug. 17, 2016
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North Korea lambastes Park's Liberation Day address
North Korea on Wednesday lashed out at the address by South Korean President Park Geun-hye on Liberation Day earlier this week when she called on the North to abandon its development of weapons of mass destruction.In a statement released by North Korea’s Committee for Peaceful Reunification, it called Park’s speech a “brazen gripe to hide the guilt of forcing the inter-Korean relations into a ruin.”The statement then went onto protest South Korea’s decision to deploy an advanced missile shield s
Aug. 17, 2016